I don’t know about the deck logs but I do know about the muster rolls.

(I am not an expert, just another person seeking info on family, as well.)

The NARA record set that you want is Muster Rolls of U.S. Navy Ships, Stations, and Other Naval Activities, 1/1/1939 - 1/1/1949.

National Archives Identifier: 594996

(from Record Group 24: Records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel, 1798 – 2007)

Ancestry.com has them digitized and online. It’s called U.S. World War II Navy Muster Rolls, 1938-1949. (My local library has access to Ancestry.com for free.)

You may be familiar with Ancestry.com but in case you aren’t, here is how to find the records:

--At the top, click Search, then Card Catalog.

--Copy and paste the following onto the search line: U.S. World War II Navy Muster Rolls, 1938-1949. Click enter.

--Select the result.

--On the right side of the page, under “Browse this collection” enter the following info:

Ship or Shore: Ship

First Letter: O

Ship, Station, or Activity: Otter

Then select which year you wish to see (1944 thru 1947).

Go page by page until you figure out how these are organized—by date, by rank, or however. (I am not familiar with Navy musters rolls like I am with Marine rolls so can’t tell you exactly how they are done but it should be easy to tell.)

We searched the National Archives Catalog and located the Logbooks of U.S. Navy Ships and Stations, 1941 - 1983 in the Records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel (Record Group 24) that include the deck log of the USS Otter (DE-210) for 21 February 1944 through 5 May 1947. These deck logs have not yet been digitized. For access to and/or copies of this log, please contact the National Archives at College Park - Textual Reference (RDT2) via email at archives2reference@nara.gov.

I perused through the links for the Muster Rolls on Ancestry.com but I wasn't able to find the name on any of the sources. It turns out that Naval Officers in this era cannot be found on the muster rolls as taking muster was typically used as a way to account for enlisted personnel only. I took a trip to the National Archives and Records Administration and viewed the original Deck Logs of the USS Otter. I was able to find my grandfather's record and all of the valorous events he and the rest of the crew braved from 1944-45.